Towards a programming environment standard in LISP

The programming requirements of the Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) community have led to the creation of tools to aid the software development process. One such tool is the programming environment. A programming environment serves as intermediary between the programmer and the task of programming. It greatly facilitates the creation of code by allowing the programmer to devote more time and thought to solving the particular problem. The sophistication of the programming environment will directly affect the produc­tivity of the programmer. Components of a programming environment for the LISP language are examined. A few reasons why programming environments increase programmer productivity are given and the different approaches in current LISP systems are discussed